Archives for July 2007

Bethel, was pushing your brother kind?
No.
Was pushing your brother glorifying God?
[brightly] Yes.
No. It does not glorify God when we are unkind. What should you say to your brother?
Yes, ma’am.
No, what should you say when you are unkind?
Please stop.
No. You should say, “Please forgive me for being unkind.”
Forgive me for being unkind.

Kelly said this:

Yes, these things are important [laundry, sleep, computer], but I am finding that spending more time WITH them [her children] allows me to stay on top of the important things, but most importantly, keeping a continuous dialogue about God. Its much easier when I am not focusing on me.

I thought that was such a fantastic reminder of the consequences of doing right. I hadn’t thought that through, so I appreciated Kelly’s comments here.

So how did I do? Some good, and some bad. I chose right some of the times, and wrong other times. I actually thought of the verse three times. Reading Kelly’s comment reminded me once to do right (and I did!). I was fairly behind in my day that time (a couple of unwise choices), and God gave me the grace to get moving. I’m normally a very slow worker; I’m learning to be fast. But thankfully after I chose to do right, I noticed I had an appointment and that got me moving really quick. I’m always surprised at how much I can get done when I’m in panic mode. All to say, I’m going to think through the love verses some more today. It’s the words of scripture that will change my heart and life (II Tim 3:16, of course!).

I have a peculiar habit. When it is time to get up (unless there’s a baby crying or other situation needing immediate attention), I avoid getting up until the clock is at a zero or five. So I’ll say, “I’ll get up at 7:10.” If I miss 7:10, I really will wait until the next nice number. It’s sort of like getting a good start on the morning, although I know it’s pretty irrational. The good part is, zeros and fives come often, so if I miss one, a new zero or five will be around soon.

First Corinthians 13 tells us what that love involves. Love does not seek her own interests– it is not selfish. I’m going to try to see how often remembering that passage helps me to do what is right today. I’m going to pray God helps me. Since I spent the last hour reading, I think I need that passage today. On the bright side, my children were up late and so are not yet awake. That’s the great thing about being a stay-at-home mom: you have many opportunities for a new start.

What decisions have you made recently that demonstrate love for your children instead of yourself? Or am I the only one?

I spent some time with my Nave’s Topical Bible looking at thankfulness verses. Nave’s is a cool book that organizes Bible verses by topic. You can find it online, but I like the paper version better. Guess I need to spend more time reading, because while I read a lot about thankfulness to God (Psalm 100, for example), there wasn’t much about being thankful to others. First Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God.” I suppose that would be a good one to talk about, but I am still not satisfied with it.

Then I pulled out the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Have you seen this book? I have a copy that was my grandfather’s, and it’s sat on my shelf gathering dust for years. My dad fussed at me awhile back when I mentioned I didn’t find it useful. It’s filled with cross-references! he said. I don’t know why I never noticed it before; it actually is very very cool. (See here for the online version.) You look up a verse you are interested in, and you’ll find a bunch of related verses for that part of the verse right under the reference. But I didn’t find what I was looking for.

I’ve heard that thankfulness and humility go together, but I cannot find the connection scripturally (although it makes sense logically). Like Lee told David, when we say thank you, we’re saying thank you for more than the gift. We are recognizing the love and care that went into the gift, and expressing gratefulness for this act of love. Maybe I should be looking at how love behaves. Any thoughts or Scripture references? I have to figure it out myself before I can even begin to explain it to a four year old and two year old.